Eyes Dead Inside
by Star-Scrap
Summary: Harry has not had a happy life. As he heals over his first year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore and Snape try to find a new place for him to live. Through a bizarre connection, Dumbledore finds an obscurely related family member of the potter line. As Harry leaves for the summer, he finds out that this person is none other than Morino Ibiki.
1. Chapter 1

Albus Dumbledore leaned back tiredly. His half-moon glasses had been set on his desk at the beginning of his headache, and now the bridge of his nose ached, much like his multiple old wounds did when a storm was oncoming. Though, he thought wryly, if this was truly the path he was to take, he probably should consider it a storm that was approaching.

Truthfully, there was no other option. Harry Potter had arrived at Hogwarts broken, beaten, and starved. He had healed over his time here, making friends with the forest beings and Hogwarts herself. The house elves had taken a particular shine to him, caring for him in the communal way that they raised their own children. It was true, with them, that it takes a village to raise a child.

But now, the boy was in such a terrible mental state that Albus simply could not justify sending him back to his relatives. He was ostracized by the other students for such childish things: he had been placed in Slytherin, he was too small, he spoke too weakly, he was subservient. They even made fun of his eyes for being too "green" somehow. He still had to punish Parkinson for that one. Even with the consequences for bullying, the students did not stop doing it, yelling at Harry for being a rat and tattle tell.

And even past the emotional abuse, the ministry had manipulated him into placing the sweet child with the Dursleys once before. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. If they managed it again, Harry would be doomed to be in the ministries control for the rest of his life.

And then the event at the end of the year happened. Harry had tried to tell him! Had told him that Hogwarts herself was wary of Quirrell! And Albus had brushed him off, saying that he couldn't know that, that he had interviewed Quirrell himself. But no, Harry was right. The man had tried to collect the philosopher's stone and only Harry had stood in his way during that. And what had happened? Harry had unintentionally killed Quirrell! His bloodline blessing had acted up to protect him, burning Quirrell alive beneath Harry's very finger tips. Since then Harry had withdrawn into himself, his shell of emotionless. He only cracked open when the centaurs had led him to the the depths of the forest to be away from the place that haunted him. The knowledge that Harry had been wary of Hogwarts had shook her to her foundations, even if she had understood the reasons for it.

So no, Harry was not going back to those dreaded people this summer. The ministry had stopped him from being able to stay at Hogwarts or with the goblins, and even the spiders agreed that the forest was no place for the boy to live for more than a few days. So he had one more option. Sarutobi was not going to be happy. Well, no one involved on that side of the barrier was going to be happy at first.

Albus sighed once again, then leaned forward to look over the parchment that he had just finished writing.

Dilys Derwent looked on calmly from her place upon the headmasters wall. "Albus, you've done all that you can. It's time to send him on. You know what will happen if he stays here any longer."

"Yes, Dilys. I know. Could you find him please? Send him here?"

She bowed gracefully, then walked out of the frame of her portrait.

Harry sat on the edge of the bed. The sheets in the infirmary were itchy compared to those in his room or his nest in the forest. Madam Pomphrey wanted to make sure that he had not reopened any of his injuries during his latest stay in the forest.

His fingers were healing from the burns smoothly, the wounds on his feet were aggravated, but none of the burns had become infected. Apparently stepping through a wall of enchanted fire while barefoot is unadvised.

Most surprisingly, the extension of the scars from his forehead were completely healed. They now looked as if they had been inflicted several years ago.

Madame Pomphrey bustled over in his direction, "All the tests came back conclusive. You're healing fine. You can only take one small dose of this potion to boost the healing process." She held out a small vial, "Burns from enchanted fire are fragile, we can only help the process along so much without the skin scarring."

"My hands are already scarred, I have no problem with that." The small boy spoke softly, with a despondence that Madam Pomphrey hadn't seen in Harry since he arrived at Hogwarts.

"Drink the potion, Harry."

As Harry swallowed the surprisingly tasteless potion, he noticed a woman gliding across the infirmaries muraled ceiling. Hogwarts whispered to him in impressions and emotions _she is kind, she approaches, she needs you._

A sudden knock rang through the headmasters office.

"Come in please, Harry."

The small boy stepped unsteadily through the extravagant doorway as Hogwarts swung the heavy door open for him. She had been extra cautious and kind to him since the incident.

"Have a seat. Now, on the matter of where you are to go for the summer," the boy flinched and curled in on himself, "the ministry has forced me to send you to stay with your relatives for the summer." The boy whimpered, a completely understandable response. "However, they never specified which relatives. I found something interesting in the bank's records when we went to visit them last week. I hadn't thought it anything big, but when I followed up on it, there was something shocking. On a continent far away from here, generally referred to as the elemental nations, is a country called the land of fire. Now, they are ruled in a curious way." Harry had sat up and was listening intently. Albus had noticed at Gringotts how interested he had seemed to be in the inner workings of organisations, and had known that this was one of the few ways that Harry could be drawn out of his shell.

Of course, it could just be an old man's indulgence to ramble on.

"There is a military state and civilian state coexisting within this country. The daimyo and the Hokage, the civilian and military leaders respectively, work for, with, and around each other. The daimyo's people supply good and services, while the Hokage's provide manual labour and protection, all vitally important things. Years and years ago, the two states created a law that would ensure for the safety of the Hokage's people, called shinobi. Instead of making standards that had to be upheld, they made a family integration law. If a shinobi died when they were hired by a civilian, and the death is ruled the fault of the client, the civilian family had to care for the family of the dead shinobi, and adopt the family as wards.

"Several decades ago, a woman named Elladora Black hired a shinobi woman, a kunoichi, to protect her sister from her family. And the shinobi did it successfully. The sister was, however, disowned by the family. Elladora and the kunoichi fell in love during the mission, and had wished to return to the land of fire to get married. The family caught wind of this idea and tried to attack the two. The kunoichi defended herself fine, but Elladora was in danger. The kunoichi sacrificed herself to save her lover. Since the death was Elladora's fault in a technical way, and she would never challenge the claim, she joined the two families in all official but not in a public way, so the Blacks were henceforth related to the land of fire.

"When a boy named Sirius Black ran away from the family, the Potter matriarch took a shine to him, much in the way the house elves took to you." The boy perked up again at the sound of his family name. "Sirius was eventually made a ward of the Potter household due to unique familial instances.

"Which means, that after several leaps of bizarre familial relations, you may stay the summer with a man named Ibiki Morino, the great grandson of the brother of the kunoichi." He finished with a proud smile. Harry sat there dumfounded, but joyful.

"I get to meet him? I could stay with him?" large green eyes peered uncertainty at the headmaster.

The old man's eyes crinkled as he smiled kindly, "Yes, I have been in contact with the Hokage, and she confirmed that Ibiki had a job that stayed within the village and was able to provide adequate care for you. However, the ministry workers are coming to escort you to your relatives home sooner than expected, and I did not have time to warn them how soon you would be there, or your certain… unique talents. Nor do the majority know of magic, only something similar."

Harry Potter was not a statuesque boy. He was no one's epitome of strength, stature, or splendor. In fact, many had gone so far as to call him weak and diminutive. He had skin pale as his owl's feathers, and eyes that were too large for his face. Often he wandered the halls barefoot or curled up under a blanket with unfocused eyes, seeing nothing but futures to be. His scar had expanded since the attack at the end of the year, and the various bolts of lightning spread down the side of his face and marring his eye. The scar would not expand, but also would never disappear. The goblins had informed the pair of the horcruxes presence in the scar, but could do nothing more than separate his mind from it and seal it away, so could never claim his or another's body. They were able to use a soul trace on it the horcrux to find the other pieces and destroy them. Voldemort would never be able to escape his cage inside of Harry's head.

Harry now sat on the side of his bed, his raven curls hiding his eyes from view. He was taking the time to catalogue the new scars he had before he asked Hogwarts to cover them again. She was always kind to him, helping him puzzle out the secrets shown in his visions and caring for his health.

"It will soon be time to go. Could you please start?"

One by one, the scars that came from his time at the Dursleys started to fade. The letters that were carved up and down his spine disappeared first, before moving on the stripes that crossed his back, creating almost an entire layer of scar tissue. The claw marks and burns on his thighs faded, until all that was left were shackle marks on his ankles and wrists. These he kept as a reminder to not let another do this to him again. Hogwarts had only let him keep them when he had realized just how misused he had been at the Dursleys. He rebandaged his hands and feet, Madam Pomphrey would not approve.

There was a knock on the door, and he quickly shrugged on a cloak that he thought made him look bigger, but in reality only exaggerated his tininess. Hogwarts neglected to tell him this due to the adorable image he made.

The door opened to Snape, frowning exhaustedly and fiddling with his wand. When Harry had first moved into the Slytherin dorms, the man had been inexplicably gleeful, but that quickly gave way to concern. Now the man oppressively hovered over him.

"We must be off soon. I trust you are all packed?" At Harry's nod, he thrust out a necklace. "Put this on, never take it off. It has enchantments that will keep you safe, make you understand simple things, and alert you to danger. I know it does some other things, but the creatures that enchanted it neglected to tell me these things. One charm from each race you have befriended." small long beads ran along the necklace inscribed with runes. Harry warily took it and put it around his neck. He struggled with the clasp for a few seconds, his bandaged hands making it difficult. Snape sighed loudly before taking the necklace into his own hands and deftly clasping it around Harry's neck.

Snape then cast a shrinking charm on Harry's chest, diminishing it until it was slightly larger than a fist. He handed it to the boy who secreted it away into his pocket.

"Listen closely, Potter, everything we do from here on out will be dangerous, but it is the only way. You need to stick with me." Snape's eyes were deadly serious, staring into Harry's with such an intense gaze that he didn't dare break it. "The people we are going to see owe me a favor, but they might decide that this is too much. If they do decide that they require more payment, you need to run. Do you understand? Get out of there as fast as you can."

At Harry's fervent nod, Snape grabbed the boys bandaged hand and disapparated with a startling crack.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey…. so it may have been like two years since I wrote the first chp? Please don't kill me. I was very uninspired for a while and dealing with a chronic illness (which I think I seriously underestimated the effects of before it got to me ((and also having an undiagnosed illness is seriously frightening.)) ). I have had zero creativity or drive, but in a sudden spurt of inspiration, I finished chp. 2 which had been sitting on my computer for a very long time. Finally.

This was the authors note I first wrote up for this chp 2 years ago:

I really need to start by saying something. I've read fan-fics for years, and in a ton of them, the author has some sort of "Hey I like reviews! Give me some love" and I kinda skimmed over it, cause I just wanted to read their stories. But wow, this is my first work, and I've never felt so validated. Your reviews mean so much, even if it's just a "cool story" (though I do like hearing specifics cause.. idk?), the fact that you spent the time to comment is astounding. You guys make my day.

Also…. Introducing: Asbjørn Orso- OC, mob boss kind of maybe.

Yes, this is Harry/Shikamaru and I have a pairing for Ibiki, but you'll have to wait and see that. No Harry will not be nin, but don't for a second think that he won't be helping as much as possible. It's against his nature to ignore problems. This is a very dialogue driven chapter, hope you don't mind that too much!

* * *

Severus and Harry appeared with a gust of wind in a musty alley. The air swirled around Harry's cloak, making it flap with significantly less grace than Severus' did. Harry looked around for a brief second before realizing that they were in a narrow opening between two shops on Diagon Alley.

His attention lapsed for a second, and he realised that Snape had started down the alley before turning back to drag Harry with him.

"How did you forget your shoes? Walking around in bandaged feet. You're an idiot, boy. You need more protection. You have to be more aware of your surroundings, especially where you are going. I can't always be watching out for you. If all things go well, I won't be watching after you. You have to learn to take precautions. Like wearing shoes. Idiot boy." Snape was muttering under his breath, ranting, not only to prove his point but to help Harry focus on the present. His hand was wrapped around Harry's wrist, pulling him behind the fluttering cloak and hiding the boy from view. Curious eyes on the street were fended off by Severus' dark muttering and even darker glare.

Harry hardly recognised this part of the alley. It was official in the way that Gringotts was. Except here, it was every building, not one out-of-place, overbearing bank. They stopped outside of a building with towering spirals, menacing in a kind of open way. It was an architectural mess of contradictions.

Snape continued blocking Harry from the world, only allowing to catch glimpses of the surrounding world. They seemed to be pacing towards the building at an alarming speed. As they get closer, Harry noticed that while they seemed to be heading to the building, but not the front door. He could see the massively ornate thing every once-in-awhile around Snape's cloak, but it wasn't directly in front of them.

They came to a stop suddenly, Harry falling full-bodied onto Snape's legs. The man helped Harry right himself with a stiff grip on his bicep. He finally got a look at what they had been heading too. Leaning against the ridiculous building was a lean-to made of scrap wood. The opening that they were standing in front of was oddly cast in deep shadows. Even though the sun was seemingly shining into the opening, nothing could be seen past the first foot of sheltered space.

"Hold your breath and step through the shadow, Harry. Calmly, with me." As one unit, Harry and Snape took a step into the darkness.

* * *

Dumbledore stared at Kingsley and the four Aurors that had accompanied him, with a grin. "Welcome! What may I do for you on this fine summer day?"

Kingsley stared at him with unimpressed eyes. "You know why we're here. Where's the child?"

"Oh, I'm certain he's around somewhere! I'll send out a summons-"

Kingsley cut him off. "How about I just send two of my men to the Gryffindor dorms and the others to the great hall."

Dumbledore smiled briefly after taking a closer look at the Aurors that flanked Kingsley. "Of course! He should be in one of those places. If not, then continue a search of the school?"

The Aurors nodded and swept out of the office.

"What's really going on here?" Kingsley demanded. "And don't even try to sell any of that 'nothing' bullshit. I've been around you enough. I know that stupid twinkle in your eye."

Albus sighed. "It's a good thing you brought along Aurors that did not attend Hogwarts in their youth. We will have plenty of time to talk."

* * *

Harry's grip on Severus' hand tightened with the sudden clamorous noise of clanging pots and people yelling. White water vapour filled the room from numerous boiling pots all lined up against a wall. The space was much larger than it had looked from the outside. A kitchen, Harry realised.

Snape bellowed out "ORSO, COME TO GREET ME."

The majority of the bustling bodies didn't even look up at Snape's proclamation. Harry as well, was oblivious to Snape. His mind was lost to the world around him. Twisting carefully but quickly out of Snape's grasp, he slithered between the bodies of two workers and disappeared in a burst of steam.

Severus' eyes widened and he started to lunge for the boy. Right as he shifted his weight, a heavy hand clasped his shoulder.

"SEVERUS! My old friend! What brings you here today?" A large man had strode up to Snape with a large grin on his face.

"I need to make a bargain. You still owe me a favour."

Orso's lips fell into a grim line, a thick eyebrow quirked up into the air. That was never a good start to a conversation, especially from Snape. Last time he had asked for a favour, Orso and his crew had wound up sneaking into a half-destroyed cottage to confirm a few deaths. That had not been a happy day.

"Name your favor, and I'll name my price."

* * *

The Auror stared blankly at the suit of armour that was pointing him in one direction.

"But I just looked that way, you great pile of junk metal! No one is there!" he screamed. His partner sighed, gazing down the hallway.

"No, actually I don't think we did. Look." the hallway had completely transformed without the two noticing it. Or perhaps it had moved.

"This is worse than manoeuvring through the goddamn department of misuse of muggle artefacts storage room. I hate this place."

The woman stared at him with an emotionless gaze, "hundreds of kids can walk through here without getting lost every day. Are you really going to give up?"

The man stopped ranting, fire lighting up his eyes.

"No way! I am not letting some stupid building beat me!"

* * *

Harry stared into the pot of steaming water. The bubbles burst, each bringing a new vision of the future. His gaze never strayed while bodies skimmed past him, twirling in an intricate dance that only the most efficient of teams can perform. A woman hurried by, lifting a pan over his head and casting a shadow on his water.

He saw it then. That was what he needed.

He quickly twirled away from the pot and started towards Severus.

Peeking through the steam, Harry locked eyes with Snape. He began to violently wave at the door behind Harry, his eyes lighting up in panic. Instead of taking his cue, Harry approached the pair in the middle of negotiations.

"I told you, Severus, that's the price." Orso sternly gazed at Snape with cold eyes, "You're asking a lot of us."

Suddenly there was a small tug on his sleeve. Green emotionless eyes gazed at him from his waist. Orso cocked an eyebrow at the small boy.

"Hello, sir. Would you perhaps be willing to consider an alternate payment?" the entire room stilled, even the steam seemed to stop tracing its way through the air. Eyes peeked out from around the room to gaze upon the audacious yet polite voice.

"And what form would this payment take?"

"Information."

"Information..."

"About the future."

"The future?"

Severus suddenly realized what the boy was suggesting and from the scepticism in Orso's voice, he wasn't buying it. It was time for him to step in.

"The boy's a seer."

Orso turned to him with a dead gaze. "I realize that. I'm not so thick as to think that he is of little ability. You're with him after all."

"A seer sees the future, and in doing so cements it in place. Since the seer is not permitted to remember their vision once they have it, their usefulness and skillfulness lies in what they are able to communicate while seeing their limited slice of the future, yes?"

The mercenary raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, but willing to listen to what Snape had to say.

"The boy has the ability to see paths, not cementing the future, and can see the context of a situation. He's able to manipulate the present to get the best result."

By this time, both of Asbjørn's eyebrows were high on his face. "So what you're saying is that his information is never going to work against me. You know that there is a reason I don't work with seers normally. It always comes back to bite you in the ass."

Harry interrupted, "I see everything. And I remember everything. I wouldn't give you information that would hurt you. I'll swear to it."

"That won't be necessary. Never offer to bind yourself to someone you don't know, child." Orso's tone had taken a warm tone, before returning to his more natural steely tone, "Now let's talk terms. What type of information do you have?"

Harry took a fortifying breath. "Something that will impact both your personal life and your business. It will secure your place in the world with the least bloodshed and the most gain for those you love."

"And you can see what happens in the future that stems from you telling me about this?"

"Yes. It's rather beneficial."

The older man nods slowly. "And how likely is it that this future happens without your interference?"

"Not likely. Not impossible, but not likely."

"Ok. for the knowledge, I offer you safe passage to the Hidden Nation, and on the outskirts of the city of Konohagakure as well. You will tell me the information in private. Do you agree?"

Harry's brief soft smile told Snape what his answer would be.

"Agreed."

* * *

Kingsley sank further down into the lush chair, his brain spinning from all of the information thrust upon him. "You truly think there is such a conspiracy?" he asked, shell-shocked.

"It's the only reason they would be so interested in the boy's fate. The prophecy is ambiguous enough that they think they can use him to profit. Their greed is always their motivating force."

Kingsley nodded and gulped, resigned to the fact that these were the people he worked for.

Dumbledore gazed upon the man with a sort of pity. He truly hadn't known that his employers were up to no good. The poor man would have to re-evaluate many things before he was able to return to his regular life if he chose to at all.

"Sit here for as long as you would like. The House-elves will supply you with tea. When you wish to gather the other Aurors and leave, just ask a portrait and they shall communicate with Hogwarts to allow your subordinates to find their way back to here."


End file.
